3121. The Necessity Of Regeneration

A Sermon Published On Thursday, December 3, 1908.

Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” {Joh 3:7}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1455, “Every Man’s Necessity” 1449}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3121, “Necessity of Regeneration, The” 3122}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-18 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2339, “Baptism Essential to Obedience” 2340 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-18 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2663, “Leap Year Sermon, A” 2664 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-18 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3053, “Jesus Christ’s Idiom” 3054 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3095, “Faith in Christ” 3096 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3121, “Necessity of Regeneration, The” 3122 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3463, “Why Men Do Not Believe” 3465 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Joh 3:1-24 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2463, “Why Men Reject Christ” 2464 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Nu 21:1-9 Joh 3:1-15 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3214, “Two Wilderness Incidents” 3215 @@ "Exposition"}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 130, “Regeneration” 125}

1. We need not wonder that there are some mysteries in our holy faith, for there are mysteries everywhere. In nature, there are ten thousand things that we cannot understand. In our own bodies there are inexplicable mysteries. He who thinks, for only a little while, even of so simple a matter as to how it is that food is gradually turned into flesh, knowing how impossible it would be for us to do it by any chemical process or mechanical apparatus, will see that there is a mystery in every human life, a secret chamber into which the eye of man cannot look. There are mysteries all around us at this very moment. If we go outside this building, we shall, like Nicodemus, observe that the wind blows; we know it blows, for we hear its sound, but where it comes from, or where it goes, we do not know. Since there are mysteries in nature, as there are mysteries in our own bodies, as there are mysteries all around us even in the most commonplace things, it is not remarkable that there should be mysteries in the kingdom of God.

2. Yet Christ, by using the metaphor of the wind, shows us that the mystery is a matter of fact, and that the mystery can be turned to practical account, for, though we do not understand all about the wind, yet we know when it is blowing; and though we cannot comprehend it, we can make use of it. The wind has been employed in a thousand ways in the service of man, and it is not necessary that we should understand it in order to make use of it. A man may be an admirable sailor, and yet know nothing about the origin of the wind. If he only understands how to hoist, or shift, or furl his sail, he will do well enough. So it is with the mysteries of the kingdom of God; although we cannot understand them, their practical use is a matter of such simplicity that we shall do well to learn what it is.

3. I am not going to attempt to explain the mystery of the new birth; that is altogether beyond my powers, I can only explain its results. But there is one point on which I want to fix your attention, and that is that if you are ever to be saved, you must experience this new birth. “Must is for the king,” we say, and it was the King of kings who said, “You must be born again.” My text belongs to the absolute necessities; this is a truth that cannot be ignored: “You must be born again.” If you are ever to enter the kingdom of God, or even to see it, if you are ever to be reconciled to the God whom you have so greatly offended, “You must be born again.”

4. But what is it to be born again? I have already said that I cannot tell you how the Spirit of God operates on the unregenerate, making them to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. I know that he usually operates through the Word, through the proclamation of the truth of the gospel. So far as we know, he works on the mind according to the laws of mind by first illuminating the understanding; he then controls the judgment, influences the will, and changes the affections; but over and above all that we can describe there is a marvellous power which he exerts, which must remain among the inscrutable mysteries of this finite state, even if we can ever comprehend it. By this power, such an amazing effect is produced that a man becomes a new man as much as if he had returned to his native nothingness, and had been born again in an altogether higher sphere. A new nature is created within him, although the old nature is not entirely eradicated. It will ultimately be destroyed, but it is not destroyed at first; when a new nature is born within the man, a nature which hates what the old nature loved, and loves what the old nature hated, a new nature which is akin to the nature of God. That is a wonderful sentence in Peter’s second Epistle, “that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature.” In his first Epistle, he writes concerning “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and endures for ever.” This living seed is sown within our hearts, and there it begins to grow, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full kernel in the ear.” The new birth is the implanting of that living seed within the soul; it is the creation within us of that new, divine, immortal life. We must have that life or we cannot see or enter the kingdom of God.

5. My subject is the imperative necessity of regeneration; and I want to show you, first, that the new birth is a great necessity; and, secondly, to ask, have we all experienced it?

6. I. First, then, I want to show you that THE NEW BIRTH IS A GREAT NECESSITY.

7. That it is a necessity is quite certain, because it is Jesus himself who says, “You must be born again,” and Jesus cannot err. Unless we are prepared to reject him altogether, we must believe him to be the infallible Teacher sent from God; yet he says, “You must be born again,” and you may depend on it that you must if you are ever to be saved. He was of a gentle, loving spirit; he never bound heavy burdens on men’s shoulders which they were not able to bear. He was so gentle that the little children gathered around his knees, and he took them up in his arms, and blessed them. I am sure that, if he could have said, “You can enter the kingdom of heaven without experiencing the new birth,” he would have said so. He said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life,” because he must speak the truth. In other places, how blessedly he has thrown the gate of mercy wide open, saying, “If any man thirsts, let him come to me, and drink”; and his last gospel invitation is, “Whoever wills, let him take the water of life freely.” The words of our text become all the more solemn because they drop from the lips of him who would not exclude a single soul from everlasting happiness unless truth required him to do so. It is the tender, gentle, loving Christ who says, “You must be born again,” and so shuts and bars the gate of heaven against the admission of the unregenerate.

8. The necessity of regeneration is universal, for Christ addressed this message to a man who was the type of a class of people who might be exempted from the new birth if any might. It was Nicodemus, a man who sincerely wished to know the truth, and who was truly desirous to be informed about the way of salvation. He came to Christ, not with any traitorous design of catching him in his speech, but keenly desirous to learn what the God-sent Teacher had to tell him. Yet Nicodemus could not enter the kingdom of God until he was born again, nor can the most earnest enquirer nor the keenest searcher after truth. It is an excellent thing to have an honest heart and a candid mind, but Christ says, even to such men, “You must be born again.” I delight to meet honest-minded people even if they are opposed to the gospel, for I have often found that their honesty compels them to yield to the claims of the gospel when it is faithfully set before them. Several of the first followers of Christ were plain, blunt fishermen, honest in their way, yet they had to be born again, and it does not matter how good a man may be, or how earnest he may be in seeking to find the truth, he cannot escape from the necessity which applies to the entire human race, “You must be born again.”

9. Moreover, Nicodemus was a wise man, well taught in the Scriptures. To be a Rabbi required a thorough education in the Old Testament Scriptures, and doubtless Nicodemus was equal to the rest of the Sanhedrin to which he belonged; but the study of Scripture, admirable as that is, will not save the soul without the new birth. It is not merely reading about Christ, but having Christ formed in us, the hope of glory, that really will save us. The Spirit of God has written the Scriptures in this blessed Book, but that same Spirit must write those truths in our heart, or else the truths will, so far as salvation is concerned, be of no value to us. No amount of knowledge that you can acquire, even a doctor’s degree of divinity,—no amount of skill in imparting knowledge to others, even though you should be a teacher in Israel,—will enable you to enter heaven without being born again.

10. Moreover, in addition to being a wise man, and a naturally good man, Nicodemus was a very religious man. He was “a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews.” The Pharisees were very specially a religious sect; they pushed their observances to the extreme point, and all the minutiae of external ritual were carefully attended to by them. They were great believers in fasting, in alms-giving, and in oft-repeated prayers. They were the High-Churchmen of that period, yet to the most conscientious Pharisees Christ had to say, “You must be born again.” The Pharisee might be particular concerning the tithing of mint and anise and cummin, and the straining out of gnats from the wine that he drank, or he might abstain from it altogether; but all this availed him nothing unless he was born again. Regeneration is the universal necessity of the entire human family. This text would suit a congregation of kings, and princes, peers of the realm and bishops, quite as well as a congregation of fruit sellers, drunkards, prostitutes, and jail-birds. To all who are born by women this necessity comes without a single exception, “You must be born again.”

11. This necessity is evident if we consult the authority of Scripture. Consider its testimony concerning what man is by nature. The Word of God never flatters us. It tells us that “there is no one righteous, no, not one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is no one who does good, no, not one.” “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Now, if this is your ruined condition, “you must be born again” if you are ever to enter the kingdom of God. Mending you, patching you up, revising you, reforming you, will be of no avail; you must be newly-created, nothing less than that will suffice for you.

   Not all the outward forms on earth,

      Nor rites that God has given,

   Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,

      Can raise a soul to heaven.

   The sovereign will of God alone

      Creates us heirs of grace;

   Born in the image of his Son,

      A new peculiar race.

12. Remember also what even the gospel requires of men. Men can hear the gospel, for they have ears; but they cannot understand it until the Spirit of God opens their minds and hearts to receive it. To this day it happens to men as to the generation in Christ’s day that though they have ears, they do not hear, and though we speak to them, they do not perceive, for how shall the fleshly man receive spiritual things? The unregenerate heart can no more understand the gospel than a horse can understand astronomy; it is altogether beyond the comprehension of the carnal man. When we use a simple metaphor, he takes it as literally as Nicodemus did when the Lord said to him, “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and he foolishly asked, “Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” When Christ talked to the woman at the well of Sychar about the living water, she said at once, “Sir, give me this water, so that I do not thirst, neither come here to draw.” And, today, when Christ says concerning the bread at the communion, “Take, eat, this is my body,” the carnally minded say that the bread is turned into flesh, not having the spiritual discernment to be able to comprehend even the simplest metaphors which the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to use. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned, and therefore the carnal mind cannot discern them.

13. The graces which appear at the very dawn of the gospel in the heart are totally above the reach of man. The gospel says, “Repent.” The unregenerate man loves his sins, and will not repent of them. He presses them to his bosom; and until his nature is changed, he will never look at them with abhorrence and sorrow. The gospel says, “Believe; cast away all confidence in your own merits, and believe in Jesus.” But the carnal mind is proud, and it says, “Why should I believe, and be saved by the works of another? I want to do something myself so that I may have some of the credit for it, either by good feelings, or good prayers, or good works of some kind.” Repentance and faith are distasteful to the unregenerate; they would sooner repeat a thousand formal prayers than shed a solitary tear of true repentance. They would sooner work their way to heaven even if they had to pass through hell itself to get there, than come and simply receive salvation for nothing as the gift of God by Jesus Christ. Brethren we must be born again, because the truth of the gospel cannot be understood, and the commands of the gospel cannot be obeyed, except where the Spirit of God regenerates the heart.

14. As for the privileges of the gospel, such as communion with Christ, what does the unregenerate man care about that? Access to God, acceptance in the Beloved, adoption into the family of God,—he knows nothing about these things, and does not want to know about them. Give him prosperity in his business, and happiness in his household, and he is perfectly satisfied without the treasures of the covenant of grace, or a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may call him to the gospel feast, but he will not come, for he sees nothing to come for. You may invite him, as you ought to do, but he will say, “I must go to my farm to try my new yoke of oxen”; or, “I must go to my newly-wedded wife, so please have me excused.” He will do anything rather than come to the banquet which eternal love has spread, because, until he is regenerated, he cannot appreciate the privileges which the gospel presents to him.

15. And, brethren, “you must be born again,” because it is impossible for you ever to enter heaven unregenerate. On earth, you cannot have peace with God without the new birth. God will never be reconciled to the flesh. It is a filthy thing, which must be put away. The old nature must be dead and buried. The ordinance of believers’ baptism is meant to teach us that great truth. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, that was done by circumcision; but, in the new covenant, it is the burial of the flesh altogether. It must be considered to be dead and buried with Christ, and so be put right away once and for all. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would work this with each one of us! “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”; and what, in our mental nature, is called the flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It must die, and be utterly put away as a corrupt thing, and we can only enter heaven through the possession of the heavenly life, by virtue of having been made new creatures in Christ Jesus. Do you, dear friends, know from experience what this means?

16. I have to make this further observation, that this necessity is not to be escaped in any way. You may do what you wish, my dear hearer, and I trust you will be in real earnest in seeking the salvation of your soul; but when you have done your best and your utmost, you must be born again. Were you from this time to give yourself diligently to searching the Scriptures, you must be born again. Did you ever notice the very strong light in which Christ put that matter of searching the Scriptures? Read properly, the text says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are what testify about me: but you will not come to me so that you might have life.” Many a Bible-reader is content with his Bible-reading, but never comes to Christ; yet Bible searching alone will not suffice for salvation, “You must be born again.” If you were to become, from this time, regular in private devotion, and constant in attendance on public ordinances, this declaration would still stand, “You must be born again.” If you are to be saved, you must have a new heart and a right spirit, and these you cannot get for yourself. A tree may shoot out a new branch, but it cannot change its nature. “You must be born again, born from above,” so our Saviour tells us. There must be accomplished in you a work which is impossible for you, a work which only God the Holy Spirit himself can perform, or else you cannot see the face of God with acceptance.

17. Indeed, and in addition to anything that you can do, ministers may do all that they can do for you, but they cannot take you to heaven, nor make you God’s child; you must be born again. I thank God for any revival that produces any genuine results; but, just because I rejoice in revivals of the right kind, I tremble as I think of many of the supposed converts who are only converted to self-conceit and to other delusions, and not to real faith in Jesus Christ. I charge you, by the living God, every one of you, not to trust in mere excitement, or fantasy as a basis for salvation. You must be made new creatures in Christ Jesus; your very nature must be changed; the whole bent, and current, and tenor of your life must be altered, and that, not by human arguments and persuasions, but by the Holy Spirit’s power, or else you cannot come into God’s kingdom. All the praying parents, and praying preachers, and praying ministers and revivalists in the world cannot save a single soul. It must be born again; and when it is born again, they do not work the miracle; God may bless their teaching, but the Holy Spirit must have all the praise for it, for only he works this amazing change.

18. Let me also say to you that there is nothing in the world that can take the place of your being born again.

   Could your zeal no respite know,

   Could your tears for ever flow,

this text would still remain true, “You must be born again.” There it stands in front of the gate of heaven, and to every one of you the question is asked, “Can you produce the evidences and signs of the new birth?” If you can, you may enter; but if you cannot, you can in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. This necessity is most pressing upon you all. I feel as if I could stand over some of you, and weep as I say to you, “You must be born again.” I have told you again and again, about judgment to come, but it does not affect you. I have preached to you about Christ’s life, and death, and resurrection, but it does not move you. In a short time you will be on your death-bed, and no one will be able to help you then unless you are born again. In a little while you will be in eternity, and unless you are born again, you will be driven from the presence of God for ever into the outer darkness where there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Oh sirs, “You must be born again,” or you will be damned! “You must be born again,” or you can never stand among the white-robed throngs that hymn the praises of Jesus. By the love we bear for you, we declare that you must be born again. A mother’s tears, a father’s prayers, a minister’s entreaties, all seem to cry to God, “Lord, our children, our hearers, must be born again. Oh, work this great miracle for your love and mercy’s sake!” I should weary you if I kept on harping on this string, but I want to get this truth right into your souls. It does not so much matter whether you remember what I say or what any other preacher says, for we may err; but our text does not err, it is infallible truth; write it up in capital letters, YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.

19. II. Now, secondly, I want very briefly to answer this question, HAVE WE EXPERIENCED THIS NEW BIRTH?

20. Perhaps someone says, “Well, I was born again by baptism. I am told that, in my baptism, I was made ‘a member of Christ, a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven.’” Yes, you were told that, but I will ask you one question, were you really made all that by your so-called baptism? I was sprinkled when I was a child, but I know that I was not made a member of Christ by it, a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. I know that nothing of the kind took place in me, but that, as soon as I could, I went into sin, and continued in it. I was not born again, I am sure, until I was about fifteen years of age, when the Lord brought salvation to my soul through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and so I was enabled to trust in Jesus as my Saviour. You say that your Prayer-Book teaches you that you were born again in baptism; but again I ask you, “Were you?” Have you lived like one who has been born again? Have you loved divine things? Have you really been a child of God? Have you really hated sin, and put your trust in Christ? If you have, I am not going to deny facts; but when I see myriads of people, who were said to have been born again in baptism, who turn out as bad drunkards, and swearers, and adulterers, and even murderers, as those who have not been sprinkled, I really cannot put any confidence in such “baptism” as that. The fact is, baptismal regeneration is a lie, a wicked invention of Popery, without the slightest warrant in the Word of God. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 573, “Baptismal Regeneration” 564} Not one has ever been born again in baptism, nor ever can be. Regeneration, in the Scriptures, is always put side by side with faith, as anyone can see who will read the Scripture without prejudice, seeking to know the truth that is revealed there. There is nothing in so-called sacraments on which a soul can rest for salvation. If you have been baptized, and even if you have been immersed, which is the only true baptism, unless the Spirit of God has regenerated you, “You must be born again, born from above.”

21. Someone asks, “How am I to know whether I have been born again?” Well, one of the first evidences of regeneration is faith in Jesus Christ, for wherever there is a sincere trust in Jesus Christ the new birth must have been experienced. This belief was described by Christ as “the work of God.” When he was asked, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” he answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” To Nicodemus, Jesus said, “He who believes in him is not condemned.” To the Jews who sought to kill him, he said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word, and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life.” So that faith is the evidence of the possession of that new life which shall last for ever, that life which is imparted in regeneration.

22. Another evidence of the new birth is repentance. Sorrow for sin is one of the best signs of the new nature. The new-born Christian hates the sins he loved before, and continues to hate them; and the longer he lives, the more he mourns that he ever committed them. His loathing of sin grows with his growth in grace, and sin is never so hateful to a man as when he is most fully sanctified. The nearer we get to heaven the more ashamed we shall be of ever having been guilty before God.

23. Sincere prayer is another good evidence of regeneration. What was said to Ananias, concerning Saul of Tarsus, as a proof that he was “a chosen vessel” for the Lord. “Behold, he prays.” It was not in a prayer meeting that he was praying, but all by himself; and the man who is in the habit of communing with God in secret prayer is a living man, for prayer is the vital breath of the soul. One of the signs that a new-born child is living is a cry; and when a man cries to God out of his very soul, you know that he is a living child of the living God.

24. You may also know whether you are born again by asking yourself another question,—Do you feel a new life within you which you never had before? “Well,” one says, “I never experienced any change that I know of; I always was good.” Then I am afraid you have formed a wrong estimate of yourself, and that you never were what you call “good.” “Well,” says the self-righteous man, “I really do not think there was any necessity for any such change as you have been speaking of.” Ah! but it is not a question of what you think; what does the text say? “You must be born again.” “But,” others say, “we had godly parents; we had an excellent example set before us. We were taken, when we were little children, to hear the Word, and we have been regular attendants on the ministry all our days.” All that does not alter the fact. “You must be born again,” or else all these privileges will only increase your responsibility. Jesus still says to you, “Unless you are converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Repent, and be baptized every one of you,” was the answer of the apostle Peter to those who asked what they must do to be saved. Repentance is necessary in every case; there must be this radical change which shall make you loathe what you once loved, and love what you once loathed. I dare not diminish one jot or tittle of the absolute necessity of the case, for I have to answer at the judgment bar of God for what I tell you. If I should flatter you into some vain hope for which there is no solid foundation, you might at the last turn around to me, and say, “You deceived us into the belief that we were saved when we were not.” I will not do that, and therefore I say to you “You must be born again.”

25. Do you, then, feel this new life within you? Do you have desires that you never used to have? Do you have hopes you never had before? Do you have fears you never had before? In fact, have you gotten into a new world where old things have passed away, and all things have become new? Do you feel like that woman who said, “Either the world is altogether changed, or else I am”? And is this the result of the change that has taken place in you, now you love God, now you seek to please him, now spiritual things are realities for you, now the blood of Jesus is your only trust, now you desire to be made holy, even as God is holy. If there is such a new life as that in you, however feeble it may be, though it is only like the life of a new-born child, you are born again, and you may rejoice in that blessed fact.

26. “Ah!” someone says, “I fear that this kind of preaching will be very discouraging for a great many people.” Well, how will it discourage them? “It will discourage them from trying to save themselves.” That is the very thing that I want to do. I would like not only to discourage them from attempting that impossible task, but to cast them into despair concerning it. When a man utterly despairs of being able to save himself, it is then that he cries to God to save him, so I believe that we cannot do a man a better turn than to discourage him from ever resting on anything that he can do towards saving himself.

27. “Well,” another says, “but it is apt to make sinners look within.” Is it? Have I ever said a word about sinners looking within? I have not said that you are to make yourselves to be born again, but I have said that “you must be born again” by the effective working of the Holy Spirit. Surely that does not make sinners look within. It makes them look above to Someone infinitely higher than themselves. The fact is, dear friends, that the preaching of the necessity of the new birth must be continued because it is true. It is in the Word of God, and, since it is there, it is there for a definite purpose, and it ought not to be put into the background, and must not be so treated. I believe that, wherever there is the work of grace in the soul, preaching the necessity of the new birth deepens that work. I know that a great many profess to come to Christ, and I hope that they really do come to him, although they have never felt what some of us experienced when we were under conviction of sin. Well, if they have come to Christ, it is all right, and I am glad; but I am still a believer in the old-fashioned type of conversion, and I do not think there are many new births without pangs, or that many souls come to Christ without alarms of conscience, and much sorrow of heart on account of sin. When I was converted, sinners used to come to Christ in this way. They looked by faith at him whom they had pierced by their sins, and mourned for him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn. I think I have seldom seen a conversion turn out well that did not have its foundations laid in some measure of abhorrence of sin, and loathing of self, and utter despair of any salvation except by the sovereign grace of God. Remember, brethren, that “what is born by the flesh is flesh” and nothing better, and that—“all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away”; it is only “the word of the Lord” and the work of the Lord that shall endure for ever. Therefore I pray that, if there is any work in you at all, it may be God’s work, and not my work, or the work of any earnest man striving to stir you up; but the real work of God the Holy Spirit from first to last.

28. If I were in a state of anxiety about my soul, and heard such a sermon as this, it would make me feel, “Oh, how dependent I am on the Spirit of God!” It would compel me to breathe from my innermost soul this prayer, “Oh Lord, save me!” I think that it would drive me in despair of doing anything to save myself, to cast myself into the Saviour’s arms, so that he might give me that Spirit by which I should be born again. And remember that, the moment a sinner does that, he is born again. As soon as he ever casts himself on Christ, he has passed from death to life, and the miracle of regeneration has been performed in him.

29. I think, dear friends, that when we solemnly preach the necessity of regeneration, it has the good result of overthrowing all that is false in men, and most if not all of what comes from humanity is false. You may grow mushrooms out of almost any filthiness you choose to put down; but the Rose of Sharon needs a different soil than that; you can easily grow men and women who say they are Christians, and who are very earnest for a month or two, and then go back to the world again. It is only the Holy Spirit who creates that life which is everlasting. In the case of those who are mere professors, a very little reproof has the effect of making them go away because they are offended, but it is not so with the true possessors of grace. What is from our heavenly Father’s planting will never be rooted up, but it will endure all tests that may be applied to it. I know that, when I went to see the minister about making a profession of my faith in Christ, I hoped that he would test me, and try me, and probe me, for I wanted him to find me out if I was a hypocrite or self-deceived, and I think that every genuine convert feels very much as I did. We do not want to have any superficial work, we do not want the work to be slurred, we want it to be done thoroughly so that it will last throughout eternity. I do not want to have any peace unless it is real peace through the precious blood of Jesus. To cry, “Peace, peace” where there is no peace, is a terrible thing, which will be sure to end in overwhelming despair, or else in fatal presumption which is even worse.

30. I am sure that the preaching of the necessity of regeneration is one of the most effective ways to injure Satan’s cause, for nothing else will avail for the conversion of a big sinner, a ringleader in the devil’s army. John Bunyan once said a very strange thing. He said that he had great hopes concerning the generation following his own, because the young people in his time were so very wicked. He thought that, if they were saved,—and he expected that many of them would be,—such great sinners as they had been would make great saints. He knew what he had himself been, and what the grace of God had made of him; and that gave him hopes for others. It was an odd way of putting it, but he was right; and if the Lord should take some big sinner here, and transform him into a saint, what a grand alteration it would make in his home! Perhaps it would affect a whole parish. I have known some leaders in sin whose conversion has really had a wonderful influence over the whole countryside where they lived; those who used to be drinking and sporting with them have said to each other, “Have you heard what has happened to old Tom?” “No, what happened to him?” “Why, he says that he has been converted! I met him the other day, and I said to him, ‘What is the latest news?’ and he said to me, ‘The best news I have ever heard is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.’ I cannot figure out what has happened to him.” Then everyone says, “There is something in that religion which has laid hold of him.” I remember well, in my first pastorate, the time when the biggest drunkard in Waterbeach joined the church. His conversion crowded the place at once; people said, “Well, if that young man’s ministry has been a blessing to such an old sinner as that, there is something in it, you may depend on it”; and they came out of curiosity to hear the Word. The best gamekeepers are those who used to be poachers, and the best preachers to great sinners are those who were once just such as they themselves are. They know the ins and outs of a sinner’s heart, and they can talk from experience instead of from theory. When a man has been in the fire, and has the smell of it still on him, he is the one to warn others not to meddle with fire, and by means of such sinners saved by grace, God shakes Satan’s kingdom to its very core, and translates sinners from it into the kingdom of his dear Son. Such conversions as these, like all true conversions, can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

31. I ask you all to adore the Holy Spirit, always think of him with the profoundest reverence. Christian men and women, who have been quickened by his power, invoke his might to rest on you whenever you go about God’s work, for without him you can do nothing. Pray in the Holy Spirit, preach in the Holy Spirit, and do not believe in the conversion of a single soul apart from the Spirit of God. Go and preach, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved,” as fully and as freely as you can, but remember that your preaching cannot, by itself, raise one soul out of its lost estate. This will be your comfort, that the Spirit of God will work with you and through you if you rely on him, and depend entirely on him. I tell you sinners, all of you without exception, that if you will come to Jesus Christ, and simply trust him, you shall have salvation, and shall have it at once; but my reliance on any result of my proclamation of the gospel is not based on my hope that you will be so well disposed as to come, or on my confidence that my way of putting the truth will lead you to come to Christ. No; I do not have a shadow of reliance, either on you or on myself; but I have this confidence, that if I faithfully preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, he will draw sinners to himself; and I believe that he will save some out of this congregation, though I do not know who they may be. You are like a heap of steel filings and ashes before me; it is no business of mine to separate you. My business is to thrust in the magnet, and that will do it. You who will accept Christ as your Saviour may have him; you who will not accept him must perish in your sin; but if you do accept Christ, it is because the Spirit of God has led you to do so, and has given you the new birth which enables you to do it. If you reject him, on your own heads be your blood for ever. This is a solemn matter; I hope that what I have said will make you think that it is so, and that, before you go to your beds, you will shake off the idea that this is a very little matter to be attended to whenever you like, and to be trifled with as long as you ever please; and that, instead of that, each one of you will say, “Oh God, I see that only you can save me! You can crush me, or you can save me. I have no claim on you. If you do destroy me, you will be just; yet save me, Lord, for your dear Son’s sake!” Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 3:1-21} {a}

Let us once more read together part of this blessed soul-saving chapter. I suppose that more souls have been saved through the reading of this chapter than through almost any other portion of Holy Writ.

1, 2. There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night,

He could not have come at a better time; the business of the day was over, and everything was quiet.

2. And said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, unless God is with him.”

It is always good to go as far as you can in your affirmation of belief in Christ. Nicodemus confessed what he knew to be true, and he drew from it the thoroughly accurate conclusion that Christ must be a teacher come from God because of the miracles which he performed. Dear hearer, if you do not yet fully know Christ, take heed that you do not trifle with the truth which you do know. If God has taught you a little about him, prize that little, and you shall have more, as we have often said, “He who values moonlight shall yet have sunlight.” Thank God if you know as much as Nicodemus knew, and ask him to teach you more.

3, 4. Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus says to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Staggering at the symbol, he stumbled at the letter of Christ’s saying, and did not perceive its inward sense.

5, 6. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born by water and by the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born by the flesh is flesh;—

Flesh, and nothing more; and it never can be anything more than flesh. The first birth brings no one any further than that. The children of the most godly parents, as far as their sinful nature is concerned, are in precisely the same condition as the offspring of the most ungodly. If they are ever to be numbered among the children of God, they must be born again, because “what is born by the flesh is flesh”;—

6. And what is born by the Spirit—

And only that—

6. Is spirit.

Now, the flesh cannot enter into the spiritual kingdom; only the spirit can enter that realm; and hence the need of a new birth, that this spirit may be created in us.

7, 8. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from, and where it goes: so is everyone who is born by the Spirit.

He is a mystery. The effect of the work of the Spirit on him is seen in him, but no man understands what the Spirit of God is, or how he works, any more than he knows where the wind comes from, and where it goes. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 630, “Holy Spirit Compared to the Wind” 621} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1356, “The Heavenly Wind” 1347}

9, 10. Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?

A very similar query to that might be asked of some who are living now “Are you profound philosophers, students deeply learned in classic lore, or wise concerning many of the mysteries of nature; yet do not know these things?” What will be the good of all your knowledge if you do not know how to gain admission into the kingdom of heaven? It would be better for a man to be ignorant of all other things, and to know this one thing, than to have all possible human learning, and yet to miss this knowledge which is the most essential of all.

11. Truly, truly, I say to you. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3053, “Jesus Christ’s Idiom” 3054}

Christ speaks with an authority that no mere human teacher can ever possess.

11. We speak what we know, and testify to what we have seen; and you do not receive our witness.

In a certain sense, every true minister of Christ and every true child of God, can say this, for we know that there is a spiritual kingdom. We have seen it, we have entered into it; and we can testify that there is another life which is as much superior to the ordinary life of men as the life of men is superior to that of the brutes that perish; and we know that we have that superior life. We have other eyes than these eyes that are visible, and other ears than the ears of our flesh. There is a higher and better life to be enjoyed even now, and he who believes in Christ has that life. “We speak what we know and testify to what we have seen”; and yet, though our testimony would be believed if we gave it concerning anything else, we are not believed when we witness concerning this higher and better life.

12. If I have told you earthly things,—

Things that take place here below, such as the new birth,—

12. And you do not believe, how shall you believe, if I tell you about heavenly things?

Christ will not go on to teach us the deepest doctrines of the Christian faith if we will not learn what is simplest. Shall the boy be taught the classics if he will not study the spelling-book? If men will not believe that there is such a thing as the new birth, shall they be taught the doctrine of union to Christ, and all those higher truths that rise out of it? They would not believe these things if they were taught them.

13. And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven.

There was a nut that Nicodemus could not crack, a riddle that he could not solve; and the Saviour left him puzzled like this, for the time being, so that he might learn that, unless he was taught by the Spirit, he could not understand the teaching of Christ. You and I, who have been taught by the Spirit, understand the meaning of these words, but Nicodemus did not, though he was “a teacher of Israel.”

Now follows another passage of Scripture which I always rejoice to read in this chapter. There are two great truths revealed here; the one is, that we must be born again, and the other is, that whoever believes in Christ is saved. Sometimes those two truths seem to come into conflict with each other. A man says, “You say to me, ‘Only believe, and you shall be saved’; and then, eventually, you tell me that I must be born again. Are both these statements true?” Yes, they are both true, and they are both in this chapter. We have been reading about the necessity of regeneration, now comes the glorious freeness of the gospel of Christ.

14, 15 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

You must be born into a new life if you are to be saved; how are you to have that great blessing? There is life for a look at Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, and lifted up in the preaching of the gospel. Look to him, then; and, as surely as those who were bitten by the serpents in the wilderness were healed the moment that they looked at the serpent of bronze, {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 153, “The Mysteries of the Brazen Serpent” 147} so surely shall every son or daughter of Adam, who gives a faith-look at the crucified Saviour, be saved at once and for ever.

16, 17. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

There was no necessity for Christ to come here to condemn us, for we were condemned already by our sin. Why, then, did Jesus come? He must have come on an errand of mercy, to bring salvation to the lost. It is even so; God sent him for that very purpose, so that he might give eternal life to as many as believe in him. Oh, the glorious freeness of this precious gospel! Surely they deserve the deepest hell who will not have heaven on such terms. They must perish for ever if they reject life when it is set before them in this truly gracious manner.

18, 19. He who believes in him is not condemned: but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,—

The very first form of it, the proof of it, and the reason for it: “This is the condemnation,”—

19-21. That light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because there deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he who does truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be revealed, that they are done in God.”

Those who love their sins cannot at the same time love the Saviour; they must love the one, and hate the other; and it is a terrible choice when they deliberately reject the only Saviour, “the Light of the world,” and choose the darkness of sin, the darkness of woe, the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

{a} This exposition was originally published with sermon No. 3124 for lack of room to publish it with this sermon to which it properly belongs. Editor.